Vandals hit homes decorated for Halloween in Union County, sheriff says

UNION COUNTY, N.C. — Vandals struck at least three Union County neighborhoods the weekend before Halloween.

“We were sitting on the couch watching some movies Saturday night and heard a loud bang, dogs barked,” resident Brandon Crain said. “We got up, and the skeleton was the in the graveyard.”

The now-hobbled skeleton that’s more than 11 feet tall is the towering focal point of Crain’s elaborate front yard setup.

“They pushed him forward,” Crain told Channel 9. “That took a little bit, and he landed forward.”

Someone vandalized nearly every lawn decoration at his home only 24 hours before Halloween.

“We wanted to try to do the best we could to make this still work,” he said. “We had to put some flex tape to kind of piece it back to together.”

Some of it wasn’t salvageable.

Crain’s decorations cost him about $2,000.

“I’m a big kid,” he said. “I like decorating, and to see everything (like this) just a day or two before Halloween, it sucks.”

The Union County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that it is investigating several incidents of vandalism to Halloween decorations across Monroe that happened on Saturday night.

In most of the cases, people’s inflatables were slashed.

“From what we hear, they were parked at a house down there, and then ran up, jumped in the van and took off,” Crain said.

The suspect’s vehicle is a white or silver minivan similar to a Honda Odyssey.

Crain hopes that a possible vehicle description being shared on social media will help aid the investigation.

“We’re just kind of piecing it together,” Crain said. “The front of our neighborhood has a scanner, so it scans all the cars that come in. So with everyone working together, hopefully, we can find somebody.”

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